I graduated from the University of Washington in 2008 with a degree in Business Administration (Marketing), and immediately entered the professional online marketing world. I founded AudienceBloom in April 2010, and have since become a columnist for Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Watch, and Huffington Post. My personal blog is located at AudienceBloom.com/blog. I guest lecture for marketing classes at the University of Washington, and currently reside in Seattle, WA.

The Definitive Guide To Using Twitter Cards

Last summer, Twitter shared their newest version of Twitter Cards. Many people who follow social media news closely have suggested that the launch directly challenges Facebook’s in-app mobile ads. As a media-rich twist in the social media landscape, Twitter Cards are being used by brands like Priceline, Foursquare, and Angry Birds. The new Card feature has tremendous potential for marketers and developers looking to stand out on Twitter in a sea of text. Here’s how you can use Twitter Cards to spread the word about your business or products.

What Is A Twitter Card?

Twitter Cards let you take your tweets beyond basic text. They allow you to create a media-rich experience for website visitors who tweet your content. They add visual interest through images, product info, videos, etc. All you have to do to get started with using the feature is add a couple lines of code to your site.

For those interested in using the feature, there are seven Card types to choose from:

gallery cards featuring a number of images

single photo cards

summary cards which let you post a link with further information

summary cards with images

app cards

player cards which showcase videos

product cards

The most exciting option for marketers is the product card, which allows users to share product photos and information directly through tweets. Twitter Cards help set your content apart from the rest of the Twitter stream, increasing the likelihood that your customers will click on and retweet your posts.

Overview of the Twitter Gallery Card

Image source: Twitter.com

Do you have a photo collection that you’d like to share with your Twitter audience? The Gallery Card lets you embed up to four photos in a tweet, so if you have some pictures you’ve been excited about sharing, this is the perfect way to do it on Twitter. Gallery even lets you provide proper attribution to your photos with a simple tweak of the html code.

Twitter Gallery Card Installation

Twitter Gallery Card installation is a straightforward process: It’s as simple as embedding some code onto your website and validating it through the Twitter Developer site. First, I’ll give you some samples so you can familiarize yourself with the code for each card type. Then we’ll take a deeper dive into the code validation process a little bit later. To give you an idea of what the markup language looks like, here’s the sample code from the Twitter Developer site:

Image source: Twitter.com

There are a couple important things to note here. First, you can see that the card name is clearly specified in the first line of code. This is a key point for every Card that you decide to use. The creator of this code has also specified the Twitter handle of the site where they grabbed the photos, attributed them to the proper creator by adding their username, provided a title and description of content, and a list of images with proper URLs.

Overview of the Twitter Photo Card

The Photo Card feature is the right choice when you want to highlight one photo. As the name suggests, the Twitter Photo Card allows you to embed a single image into a tweet. As your peers and customers are browsing their daily newsfeed, your post and photo will stand out.

Don’t be worried about image size. The Photo Card feature automatically resizes your photos so they render well across devices. Just make sure the photo you’re sharing is at least 280 pixels wide by 150 pixels tall, otherwise it won’t be uploaded.

Installing Photo Cards

The Twitter Photo Cards are arguably the simplest to install. Seven short lines of code is all it takes. See the sample code below for reference.

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